Hayden Flour Mills – Artisan Wheat Flour

Right to that award…

Martha Stewart’s “American Made” concept spotlights the maker, supports the local, and celebrates the handmade. The program researches and recognizes the people behind artisanal goods, people that have turned their passion for quality craftsmanship and a sense of community into a way of life. Well recently, they researched and recognized one of Arizona’s own – Hayden Flour Mills. The business was one of 10 winners to receive the American Made award. They will take away $10,000 and exposure in Stewart’s magazine, Martha Stewart Living, as well as on her satellite radio channel and website.

Run by the father-daughter team of Jeff and Emma Zimmerman, the goal of Hayden Flour Mills is to make the freshest artisan wheat flour from some of the world’s oldest varieties of wheat.  They believe and pay homage to a time when flour was non-hybridized, minimally processed and quite flavorful.

Brief History…

Jeff Zimmerman started the company in 2010 – basically with an idea, the rights to name “Hayden Flour Mills” (which Charles Hayden started in Phoenix, 1874) and…well, that’s it. But sure enough, and with help from others who understood his vision, he assembled the pieces and a team of people that could create the soft flour he was dreaming of. The flour he remembered from growing up in the farm country of North Dakota. Flour that would benefit the community as a whole (due to the local farms he’d use and the ‘neighborly’ spirit he would embrace), but also the health of the individuals who would consume the flour (due to its quality and the purity of the process).

Enter Chris Bianco (yes, that Chris Bianco…James Beard award winner and pizza-making master). Bianco helped Zimmerman in 2011, when he offered to let the newly established company use a back room in his sandwich shop, Pane Bianco. So, that’s where the stone mill (imported from Austria) was set up and the milling began.

Today…

Today, the family-business of Hayden Flour Mills has moved out of that back room, but they are still grinding heritage and ancient grains on that Austrian stonemill. Each bag of flour is milled fresh by their Master Miller, Ben.  And those grains are grown right in Arizona, on small farms.

Hayden Flour Mills flour and mixes can be found in Phoenix-area retail locations and beyond, including Pane Bianco, Whole Foods markets, the Phoenix Public Market Café and a few others. Their products can also be ordered right from their website (where one can also find recipes including no-knead bread, tarts and pasta!)

On a side note, Zimmerman registered the trademark for Hayden Flour Mills, the company, which had been abandoned by its operators, not the Hayden Flour Mills building (the iconic structure in downtown Tempe). Although Zimmerman had (and has) no plans to reoccupy the building, there are current unrelated redevelopment plans awaiting final approval. The five-acre project will supposedly preserve the existing four-story building and the grain elevator, adapting it to a new, mixed-use development. Time will tell on that one.

For more information about Hayden Flour Mills (plus those amazing recipes!) or about Martha Stewart’s American Made endeavor, visit:

• www.haydenflourmills.com

• www.marthastewart.com/americanmade